Lawyer-Legislators and Support for State Legislative Reform

The rediscovery of rules and procedures as an important element for understanding legislative decision-making has become very apparent in recent summaries of research on Congress and European Parliaments. Institutional factors are now seen as critical factors that structure and restrict how individual legislators can go about their decision-making responsibilities. The goal of this article is to provide a landscape of the evolution of committee system structure in US state legislatures so that future research will be able to test current theories of institutional change. The major conclusion of this research is that US state legislatures have formalised the structure of their committee systems over the course of the twentieth century and that many similarities and few differences exist in committee system structure between US state legislative upper and lower chambers. Further, this article discovers that four distinct dimensions - property rights, codification of basic structure, internal democracy and minority party rights - of committee system structures exist in US state legislative chambers.

Objective. In this article, we explore whether African‐American state legislators have been able to translate election to office into positions of power, particularly as committee chairs.Methods. We cull data from all state legislative chambers that contained a black legislator during two time periods, 1989 and 1999. In doing so, we compare the observed numbers of African‐American chairs with their expected numbers. We also examine each state's percentage of black chairs using multiple regression to determine what factors—political, partisan, institutional, cultural—influence the selection of black committee chairs.Results. Overall, our descriptive analysis reveals that blacks are underrepresented as chairs. They are not, however, significantly underrepresented as chairs of the most important committees and they are generally overrepresented as chairs of committees with jurisdiction over social services. Our multivariate analyses show that the prevalence of black chairs is driven primarily by factors related to partisan control of legislative chambers and size of the black legislative delegation, and that these dynamics have changed over time.Conclusion. Although the increase in African‐American state legislators has led to an increase in substantive leadership roles, these positions have been limited almost entirely to chambers where the black caucus is a critical element of a Democratic majority.

The Birth of the Unauthorized Practice of Law Movement

108 The press to meet mounting social any of these programs would affect problems, combined with budgetary well over a million people. Other pro cutbacks, elimination of programs, imgrams affect even more recipients. For poundment of funds, and scarce reexample, the 1972 changes in Medicaid sources, makes this a critical period (P.L. 92-603) terminated some bene for social welfare and the social work fits for over 20 million low-income profession. If the profession is to recitizens, and an increase in Medicare main viable, more social workers must fees would affect virtually everyone become active as legislative advocates, over age 65, or about 22 million In this article the term legislative adelderly and disabled people.2 vocate refers to any individual, agency, The largest social welfare program or organization who attempts to influis, of course, social security. If Con ence the course of a bill or other gress makes one change in social se legislative measure. curity benefits, which it does nearly The purpose of this article is threeevery year, that change can directly fold: (1) to present data supporting influence the income of 124 million the assertion that this is indeed a critipeople—30 million beneficiaries and cal and perhaps a pivotal period for 94 million workers (whose payroll tax social work, (2) to discuss factors in would be increased)—well over half the legislative process that set limits on the population.3 the amount of influence one may exDespite a Republican administration pect to exert, including the roles of and the demise of many social pro compromise, time, and rational persuagrams started in the 1960s, important sion, and (3) to examine specific tacwelfare legislation continues to be in tics that may be used—the provision troduced and debated in both federal of timely and relevant information, the and state legislatures. For example, selection of targets of influence, and major federal legislation has been in the use of legislative and administratroduced recently on child develop tive staffs as conduits of influence. ment, health care, the minimum wage, welfare reform, social security, hous NEED FOR ADVOCATES i„g( an(j manpower.4 And thousands The need for involvement of social of bills concerning social welfare are workers in legislative advocacy has introduced each year into the fifty state long been recognized and supported.1 legislatures. Few bills survive the tor However, it is even more critical now tuous legislative process. Some deserve because of three significant factors: to pass, but many are not in the best ( 1 ) The breadth of social legislation interests of the public or do not rep causes even minor changes in policy to resent enlightened social policy. The have a major impact on millions of point is that social change will come people. (2) Much important social about whether or not social workers legislation continues to be introduced are actively involved in the process, each year. Moreover, an ever growing Moreover, federal, state, and local proportion of the budget and national governments allocated 55 percent of resources is being devoted to welfaretheir budgets for welfare activities in type activities, and it is important that fiscal 1973, compared with 42 per social workers have a role in determincent in 1965. Social welfare expendi ing priorities. (3) The lack of a budtures under public programs rose from getary surplus, combined with a slow $52.3 billion in 1960 to $215 billion rate of growth, will make competition in 1972. The proportion of the gross for funds expended on social welfare national product devoted to public so more intense than in the past. cial welfare increased from 11.8 per New legislation can produce widecent in 1965 to 17.6 percent in 1973.5 spread social change for specific segIn short, the public sector's role in ments of the population. For example, financing social welfare is growing in fiscal 1972 there were 17 governrapidly. In addition, decisions affecting mental income-transfer and in-kind social welfare are being made increas programs, each of which had over a ingly in state and federal legislatures, million recipients. Thus a change in Revenue sharing shifts even more deci

Influencing public policy through advocacy is an essential strategy used by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) to achieve its health impact goals and programmatic objectives, which include helping all Americans lead healthier lives and reducing the incidence and consequences of cardiovascular disease and stroke. This advocacy work involves and engages the association's national officers, researchers, volunteer advocates, staff, and the general public and is a core strategy and key work process of the AHA/ASA. The organization's strategic approach to influencing public policy and leveraging its science and evidence base is not well known. This article provides the historical context of AHA advocacy, the organizational and legal structure under which these activities are carried out, the process used to develop the association's public policy positions and goals, the approaches used to achieve these goals, and the methods that have been developed to evaluate progress. This statement also examines the various tools and tactics that advocacy organizations use to influence public policy and specifically how the AHA/ASA conducts policy research, legislative and regulatory lobbying, coalition building and grassroots mobilization, and media advocacy. Finally, the ways that AHA/ASA evaluates the impact of its advocacy efforts are discussed, highlighting specific case studies and a brief summary of the association's 2010 to 2013 public policy agenda. The AHA's efforts to translate the science of cardiovascular disease and stroke into meaningful public policy began in earnest in the early 1980s. The association established a full-time office in Washington, DC, in early 1981 that was initially focused on increasing federal research funding administered by the National Institutes of Health.1 Other early policy priorities included tobacco control and support for programs that increased access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs), new clinical preventive benefits in the Medicare program, and nutrition policy. The commitment and involvement of …

Nearly all libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany are publicly owned, and their employees are placed in the same position as government servants. Library employees enjoy the same advantages and benefits as persons engaged in other branches of government, and their conditions of service are regulated in effect by the same or similar provisions of law. As the Federal Republic of Germany is a federation of several states (Länder), competence to make laws for the regulation of government employees rests concurrently in the federal legislature and the legislatures of the individual states. In this respect there are separate laws for the regulation of federal employees and the employees of the individual state governments, but for all practical purposes such federal and state laws are substantially similar. The respective laws establish systems of different ranks for government employees and prescribe educational qualifications as well as other requirements for the entry into employment at different service levels. There are no specific federal laws for the education and admission of library employees. According to the laws of the individual states, however, library employees are divided into four categories: (1)Senior library service (Höherer Bibliotheksdienst) which is open to persons with academic qualifications (preference being given to persons with doctoral degrees according to the laws of most states) upon completion of a prescribed period of practical library training and a formal educational course in librarianship.(2)Advanced library service (Gehobener Bibliotheksdienst) which is available to persons who undertake a formal course of study in librarianship (which is different in content from the course established for the senior library service) upon completion of high school education.(3)Intermediate library service (Mittlerer Bibliotheksdienst) which does not require high school education but in several states a formal training in librarianship.(4)Subordinate library service (Einfacher Bibliotheksdienst) which does not require an secondary educational or practical qualifications.By way of a general guide to readers, who are not familiar with the German system of library positions, it should be added that this classification system does not have precise equivalents in the Anglo-American countries. The senior and to some extent the advanced library services may, however, be compared to professional library positions, and the intermediate and subordinate service levels to supporting staff positions in the United States libraries.

Under Australian constitutional theory and practice the Federal executive is the sole organ for the conduct of international relations and is constitutionally competent to negotiate, conclude and ratify treaties and international agreements binding upon the Australian Commonwealth internationally. The Power to conclude treaties is exercised solely by the Executive of the Australian Commonwealth. In regard to the implementation of treaties Australia adopts the dualist view, i.e., legislation is generally necessary to make treaty provisions operative within municipal law. The implementation of treaties concluded by the federal executive depends, however, on the constitution and the nature of the limits laid down thereby, particularly the federal division of legislative powers between federal and state legislatures. The federal executive is competent to legislate pursuant to treaties and international obligations in cases where the subject-matter of the treaties and obligations falls within legislative competence of the Federal Parliament (i.e., “external affairs” and other subject-matters). On the other hand there is reasonable doubt that the Federal Parliament can clothe itself with legislative authority which is inconsistent with the distribution of legislative powers between federal and state legislatures. As a result, politically if not constitutionally, the implementation of treaties domestically becomes a matter for the states in cases where the Federal Parliament or the Federal Executive is deemed not to have the necessary constitutional powers to enact legislation concerning the subject-matter of a treaty.1

This chapter examines environmental law in the United States. It begins with a discussion of the US approach to environmental law, describing it as a system striving for balance, including balance in terms of the allocation of powers between federal and state legislatures. The chapter provides an overview of the constitutional bases of US environmental law, delegation of authority to regulatory agencies, and environmental regulation in relation to private property. It then considers the structure and substance of environmental law, focusing on five pieces of legislation: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). The chapter concludes with an analysis of the implementation framework and how it affects environmental law in practice, taking into account the role of agency authorities, administrative enforcement, civil remedies, criminal sanctions, and relevant provisions on citizen suits.

Recent state and federal legislation such as the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) addresses hate crime prevention and punishment. Two pivotal questions that arise in the development of such legislation are (a) should hate crime perpetrators be subject to penalty enhancements? and (b) should protections be extended to sexual and transgender minority individuals? This article presents two studies addressing these questions employing a two-step vignette methodology. Jury-eligible community members provided sentencing and blame attribution ratings for one of three hate crime scenarios (i.e., anti-African American, antigay, or antitransgender), as well as penalty enhancement agreement (i.e., yes/no) and measures of need for affect (Study 1) and need for cognition (Study 2). Patterns of findings across studies suggest that participants comply with hate crime legislation instructions in general, but sentencing decisions are consistently moderated by whether a participant agrees with the penalty enhancement aspect of hate crime legislation. Moreover, need for affect and need for cognition differentially impact perceptions of hate crimes; need for affect demonstrated predictive associations with victim blame, whereas need for cognition moderated relations with perpetrator sentence and blame judgments. Results are discussed with emphasis on the state of federal hate crime legislation, antigay and antitransgender prejudice, and future directions in research and policy.

The legal profession is taken to task for encouraging expensive and needless litigation. Examples are cited in which difficult decisions about allowing patients to die are complicated by unnecessary judicial intervention or unclear legal guidelines.

Beyond these basic generalizations, we know precious little about how state legislatures handle their workloads. How is the workload divided among committees? At what stage of committee consideration do bills die? Why do some bills pass and others fail? When during the session are the various kinds of legislative business transacted? What linkages exist between legislative practice and legislative performance? No practice of state legislatures' workload management has been more thoroughly condemned than the end-of-session logjam of business. In the closing weeks of the session, state legislators are buried in an avalanche of work. In many states it becomes impossible to find bills, let along secure action on them (Wahlke 1966: 147). Legislative chambers become scenes of madness and mayhem (Berkley and Fox 1978: 84). In the midst of such confusion, legislators vote wildly and blindly on countless measures they don't know a thing about (Chamberlain 1969: 206; Lorch 1983: 164). The leadership is able to push bills or amendments through hastily without giving the members a chance to deliberate on them (Harrigan 1980: 110). The most important legislation receives the least careful consideration (Burns 1971: 56). The result is legislation of inferior quality (Luce 1974: 155). There seems to be widespread agreement among legislators, legislative scholars, and legislative reformers that the end-of-session logjam is endemic and pernicious. For some, the end-of-session logjam seems inevitable. For others, the logjam is a function of legislative workloads or procedures. For yet others, the logjam is a strategy of legislative leaders to enhance their own power. Many observers have identified presumed causes of logjam; some have suggested ways to reduce the size of logjams. The literature on state legislative logjams is more speculative than empirical. There are many statements which describe logjams in state legislatures. However, such generalizations have not been confirmed by data analysis. Numerous hypotheses concerning factors which affect the comparative size of logjams in state legislatures have been advanced. Yet,

Use of information on inflation, pharmacoeconomics, market introduction of new drug entities, practice-site-specific drug-use patterns, federal legislation, and the changing structure of health care delivery to project drug expenditures is discussed. Drug price inflation has been declining over the past several years, from 6.9% in 1991 to 2.2% for part of 1994. This can be attributed to both the growth of managed care and the industry's fear of government price controls. Pharmaceutical industry analysts project the overall price increase for pharmaceuticals in the next 12-24 months to be 2-5%. Pharmacoeconomic research is likely to become increasingly important; pharmacists will need to understand and critically evaluate this research. Drug budget projections should include a complete review of new drugs and biotechnology agents pending FDA approval, drugs pending approval for new indications, and common unlabeled uses of expensive existing agents. Various methods are available for tracking practice-site-specific drug-use patterns; those that categorize expenditures by diagnosis-related group may underestimate total expenditures associated with treating a given condition. State and federal legislation may affect drug rebates, prices, and ultimately drug expenditures. Although health care reform legislation did not pass in 1994, changes are occurring in both the pharmaceutical industry and in health care delivery, shifting the control of drug selection, utilization, and expenditures from individual prescribers to large purchasers. The accuracy of projections of drug expenditures can be improved by examining inflation, pharmacoeconomic research, the introduction of new drug entities, practice-site-specific drug-use patterns, federal legislation, and the changing structure of health care delivery.

Widespread SARS-CoV-2 vaccine uptake will be critical to resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. Politicians have the potential to impact vaccine sentiment and uptake through vaccine-related communication with the public. We used tweets (n = 6,201), abstracted from Quorum, a public affairs software platform, to examine changes in the frequency of vaccine-related communication by legislators on the social media platform, Twitter. We found an increase in vaccine-related tweets by legislators following the arrival of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. In the pre-COVID-19 era the majority of vaccine-related tweets were generated by Democrat and state senators. The increase in tweets following the arrival of COVID-19, however, was greater among Republican and federal legislators than Democrat or state legislators. This suggests that legislators who were previously less engaged in public discussion of vaccination, became engaged following the arrival of SARS-CoV-2, which may have implications for COVID-19 vaccine uptake among their followers.

Introduction. Texas is an economically powerful region of the United States, where the circulation of drugs is subject to legal protection, strictly regulated by both federal and state legislation. Such protection is aimed at carefully monitoring each stage of the drug supply chain to the end consumer to ensure the safety and effectiveness of drugs. Aim. The article aims to clarify the features of drug circulation as an object of legal protection under the legislation of Texas (USA) and to determine the relationship between the norms of federal legislation regulating such circulation and the norms of the legislation of Texas. Materials and methods. This research is based on US law, which belongs to the common law system. The Constitution of the United States and the United States Code, including the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (1938), were analyzed as guiding provisions on the basis of which the legal protection of drug circulation is carried out at the federal level; in Texas, the Texas Health and Safety Code and the Texas Professions Code were researched. The following research methods were used: dialectical, hermeneutic, comparative, analytical, and systems analysis. Results. The circulation of drugs in Texas (USA) is an object of legal protection and has its own specifics since the USA is a federation and federal regulations have priority over the regulations of individual states. Therefore, the provisions of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (1938) and other federal laws are guidelines for Texas. Conclusions. Legal protection of drug circulation in Texas is carried out by clearly defining the scope of rights and obligations of the subjects of such circulation, non-compliance or violation of which entails legal liability (more often - civil, less often - criminal). The obligations of the subjects of drug circulation in Texas, as in the rest of the USA, are focused on preventing the entry into commerce of falsified or misbranded drugs, compliance with the rules of drug marketing, prevention of possible healthcare fraud (for example, Medicare fraud), ensuring intellectual property rights, etc.

Volden et al.'s study of the US House of Representatives found that congresswomen in the minority party exhibit greater legislative effectiveness than their male counterparts, while effectiveness levels are comparable in the majority party. This paper re‐examines the relationship between gender, majority party status, and legislative effectiveness within the diverse institutional contexts of US state legislatures. Using the State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) developed by Bucchianeri et al. for the period 1987–2018, we replicate and extend the original congressional analysis. Contrary to the findings at the national level, our analysis of over 80,000 legislator scores across 97 state legislative chambers reveals no measurable advantage in legislative effectiveness between women and men in the minority or majority party. Instead, we find that in most cases female state legislators are less effective than their male counterparts. These results suggest that the institutional dynamics shaping the conditions for women's legislative success may operate differently in state‐level versus congressional settings, highlighting the importance of context in studies of gender and lawmaking.